COLD Application Saves Time And Space

Source One Mortgage Services Corporation, of Farmington Hills, Michigan, was inundated with its records. The firm had already switched from paper to microfiche some years earlier, but employees were clearly unhappy with the system. They found it to be very cumbersome. Each time they needed information from the microfiched files, they had to go to a central location where the microfiche were stored. In addition, once they located the correct record, they often found it difficult to obtain a good quality print.

Explaining The Advantages Of COLD
Jeff Nareski, an information management specialist with VuCom Data Services, a VAR and service bureau in Lansing, MI, was aware of the problem. One day in January, 1996, Jeff approached the managers at Source One and explained the advantages of COLD (Computer Output to LaserDisk) to the mortgage company's managers. He demonstrated that, with COLD, employees could obtain the data while sitting at their desks. They could obtain it in only a few seconds and the quality of the images was better than those from microfiche. And, they could save storage space.

Source One's management was favorably impressed. Unfortunately, however, a major problem existed. Source One Mortgage Services did not have any personal computers (PCs) for its personnel. Fortunately, on the other hand, the company was already planning to install PCs for other purposes.

Applying COLD
For the next year, Jeff supplied Source One with its microfiche while he and the mortgage firm waited for the PCs to be installed. In February, 1997, the PCs were installed and Jeff was able to begin. Source One's managers did not want a complete COLD system, but did want the benefits of COLD. Accordingly, Jeff installed Maximal COLD software on Source One's PCs. Nareski selected Maximal software for its flexibility and user friendliness. Source One now gives its tapes to Jeff and his company, VuCom Data Services, processes the data and provides CDs to Source One, to use in its PCs. Originally, Source One did not have a network for its PCs, so Jeff showed them how to use the system on stand-alone computers. Now, all the computers at Source One are networked.

And The Results...
The results of Source One's transition to COLD have been gratifying. Joyce Boka, an associate vice president of Source One, says the company initially intended to use COLD for only two applications. One was for payment histories and the other for annual statements. However, when Source One's managers and employees realized how much more quickly and accurately they could do their jobs with COLD, they applied the technology to six other applications. Boka says there are still some records which are being placed on microfiche, but even these will be switched to COLD in the near future.

Boka says that training has been easier than expected. Jeff Nareski initially trained each employee for a few hours on the basics. Now, he holds small training sessions periodically on how to use the Maximal software.